SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and LOS ALAMOS--Locus Technologies (Locus), a Web-based environmental software company, announced Monday that it has been awarded a contract from Los Alamos National Laboratory to manage LANL's environmental data in Locus' Cloud. The contract is worth up to $2 million from 2011 through an additional four option years.

“High-quality environmental data is one of the key drivers that will help us meet our cleanup goals,” said Alison Dorries, division leader for the Lab's Waste and Environmental Services organization. “Organizing these massive volumes of data, and making them available to the public, will help demonstrate our commitment to openness and environmental compliance.”

The 37-square-mile laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world; it conducts multidisciplinary research for fields such as national security, outer space, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing. LANL is one of two laboratories in the United States at which the government conducts classified work toward the design of nuclear weapons.

The Locus Environmental Information Management (EIM) software will help LANL organize and manage its future environmental compliance and monitoring activities. By centralizing the data collected during current remediation and surveillance efforts, Locus' EIM software will enable the facility to more efficiently address legacy site contamination, both chemical and radioactive, across multiple locations. EIM will allow Los Alamos to take a better aggregate view of its environmental challenges and make better planning decisions for environmental stewardship.

Activities that EIM will organize include environmental data of all media types, comparison of historical contamination levels; planning and performing sampling, processing, and analysis of environmental media; providing institutional coordination, integration, and communication of all environmental monitoring activities, data, and documentation; implementing regulatory and action standards and policy with line organizations; and interacting with government agencies, stakeholders, the public, and Indian tribes on environmental resource management issues.

Locus designed its EIM software specifically to meet challenging water-quality management issues, covering both analytical chemistry and the management of radionuclide data in a complex hydro-geological setting. EIM will also provide a web-based GIS system for Los Alamos data that will be available to the general public, bringing ease of use and complete transparency to complex data sets.

“With more than 37 square miles of complex geology and hydrogeology, Los Alamos National Laboratory is home to 14 major canyon systems that affect the Rio Grande, and the complexity and size of Los Alamos operations make environmental compliance a top priority. We are very proud that LANL has determined that EIM has the robust functionality to meet the facility’s formidable data management requirements. After the National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford (SLAC), Los Alamos is the second U.S. Department of Energy site to be managed in EIM. We are very excited to work with LANL's talented team of professionals on this important long term project,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

LANL has created byproduct waste since the 1940s. Its past practices for disposing of waste, while meeting the standards of the day, are not up to today's standards. Investigations, cleanup, and remediation are now under way, and the Lab has dramatically reduced its waste generation from ongoing work.

The information in this report is derived from a news release issued by Locus Technologies.